General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave an impassioned defense of open-mindedness in the military today after Rep. Matt Gaetz excoriated Pentagon brass for assigning texts related to critical race theory (watch above).

“What is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding, about the country for which we are here to defend?” Milley asked.

Pounding the table, Milley added, “I personally find it offensive we are accusing the United States Military … of being quote ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”

“The United States Military Academy is a university. And it is important that we train and we understand. I want to understand white rage, and I’m white. And I want to understand it,” he said, referring to a book by Carol Anderson assigned during a race and ethnicity course at West Point.

Speaking extemporaneously, the former Green Beret added, “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out, and I want to maintain an open mind here, and I want to analyze it,” he said about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Milley said military leaders should be well read. He noted that he’s studied works by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, but that doesn’t mean he’s a “communist.”

Gaetz simply shook his head as Milley wrapped up his remarks.

Earlier in the congressional hearing, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin dismissed a Gaetz question on critical race theory as “spurious.” Austin said he doesn’t know what critical race theory is. When Gaetz told him that many service members have complained about it, Austin responded, “Thanks for your anecdotal input. But I would say that I have gotten 10 times that amount of input, 50 times that amount of input, on the other side that has said, ‘Hey, we’re glad to have had the ability to have a conversation with ourselves and with our leadership.'”